KELLY, WILLIAM: Plymouth Brother; b. of
Episcopalian parentage in the north of Ireland
1821; d. at Exeter, England, Mar. 27, 1906. He
was early left fatherless, supported himself by
teaching in the island of Sark, and joined the Plymouth
Brethren (q.v.) in 1840. He retained a close
connection with the Channel Islands for thirty
years, residing in Guernsey, but for the latter half
of his career his home was at Blackheath, London,
S. E. He graduated with classical honors at Trinity
College, Dublin, and by his writings established
a reputation for sound scholarship and acquired
distinction as an able controversialist. Besides
aiding Tregelles in that eminent scholar's investigations
as a Biblical textual critic, he himself published,
in 1860, a critical edition of the Revelation
of John, which earned a commendatory notice from
Ewald in the Göttingen Jahrbücher. Such studies
were carried on concurrently with the editing of a
periodical entitled The Prospect, which gave way to
The Bible Treasury, carried on by Kelly to the time
of his death. This brought the editor into correspondence
with such men as Dean Alford, Dr. Robert
Scott the lexicographer, Principal Edwards,
Professor Sanday, and other theologians. In his
last days Archdeacon Denison was wont to speak
of The Bible Treasury as the only religious magazine
worth reading, so steadfast was the editor in rejection
of what he believed to be Christ-dishonoring
views of the Bible put forth by higher critics.

Kelly identified himself whole-heartedly with the
body of doctrine developed by the late John Nelson
Darby (q.v.), whose Collected Writings were
edited by him. According to Neatby, he "was
essentially the interpreter of Darby to the uninitiated."
Kelly's own merits were, however, manifest
alike in living as in written ministry. Spurgeon,
judging by the latter, has applied to him, in
the Guide to Commentaries, words of Goldsmith,
"born for the universe, who narrowed his mind"
by Darbyism. Although friction at last arose between
them, the younger retained his veneration for
the older man.

In the list of Kelly's writings will be found lectures
on or formal expositions of all the books of
the Bible. Kelly exercised considerable influence
upon outside readers by his Lectures on the New

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Testament Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (London,
(1867); On the Church of God (10th ed., 1906); On
the Pentateuch (1877); On the Gospel of Matthew
(1868); and On the Book of Revelation (1861). "In
the Beginning" (Mosaic Cosmogony), Expositions
of the Prophecies of Isaiah and the Gospel of John
(enlarged ed. by E. E. Whitfield, 1907); The Epistle
to the Hebrews and the Epistles of John; a work on
God's Inspiration of the Scriptures, and his last words
on Christ's Coming again (in which he vindicated
the originality of Darby in regard to the "Secret
Rapture" after its impugnment by an American
writer) are other works which warrant notice.